mmm comida gostosa!

I felt like after talking about how salty the food was I have to show that I was sooo happy with many meals though, here's an excerpt from an email sept 24, 2009 :

i had such awesome food today. okay so for breakfast i had some white and black beans with lots of herbs and veggies, and some mamão (papaya), and a long conversation with my older sister--the 21 year old. about what kind of stuff she likes to do with her friends. and about how in november what really IS bahia (salvador) is the practicing for carnaval already. even though it's gonna be like in february or ...march (depending on when lent is starting).

but anyway i have had the best papaya of my life here in salvador i'm really going to miss it and i won't know what to do. i have to have it every day while here and it's so delicious. it makes the papaya over there taste nasty.

anyway then for lunch i had the same beans but so delicious i was happy to have them again, and on top of rice and next to some teriyaki type chicken....so good. then the sardine apple, cilantro, tomato, chuchu (chayote), and some other stuff salad. and a side of papaya. mmmm. then i had a snack of coco whole wheat cookies. and then i had a nother snack of that sardine and soy salad, and then i had another snack of papaya, and suco-juice de maracujá, and crackers.

then for dinner i had this thing called mugunzá and it's made of corn with coconut milk and cinnamon sticks and cloves. and then cuzcuz, which is like corn bread but the corn flour is more chuncky and flakey and fluffy and a minha mae put some butter on it and had me eat it with the teriyaki chicken. and soymilk. it was delicious. i love bresil and i know that i'll be hecka missing it.

Here's the food: mmm

the salad

Those beans with some linguiça

Mugunzá ^
(it seems like this food also has some kind of indigenous origin because of the corn from the americas, but apparently angola and bantu cultures also have a similar porridge so may be it's an afro-brazilian food with origins in slavery hmm...)

Cuzcuz, one of my favorite brazilian foods!

and here it is with the teriyaki-like chicken. dericious!

pictures

P.S. just in case you didn't know or haven't tried, if you click on the picture, you can enlarge it, para verlas mejor. pra vê-las melhor, tá?

Steet Food!!!

Okay two at a time:

Pamonha:

This is what the stands look like on the street, if you eat it there, they open it for you, cut it inside the banana leaf or corn husk and offer some butter to put on it. I like them sem nada.

These are two different kinds, one is carima and the other is made of a corn and milk paste cooked in the husk. The name pamonha comes from Tupi, (one of the most imfluential Brazilian indigenous language, on Brazilian Portuguese) pa'muña meaning "sticky" and they are kind of sticky.




The corn one [above] tastes a lot like a tamal, but not quite. In northeastern Brazil like in Bahia the sweet pamonha is more common, but there is also salty pamonha and which is available in Bahia but some places will only have a day in the week that they have it. Other places will make it but only if you make a pre-order.


The carimã kind [above] is made from the Cassava root. This one was the stickier one, and I don't think the taste is comparable to anything I know, but it was really good. It wasn't a very invasive flavor it was possibly a little like tapioca flavor, like boba! yeah like boba in thai pearl tea.

Água de Côco

This coconut water is offered everywhere! And I actually got to go to a coconut farm. Even though there are many coconut trees lining the beaches, they usually don't get the coconuts from there. The price definitely depends on where you are but the more common price was around R$1.50, but some barracas (fancy little hut/restaurants) and restaurants will sometimes charge like R$4

So as you can see, or not actually you missed the important part, they'll cut it on three sides and the top is chopped off either enough so that the top is open or easy to punture with a straw. They usually let you choose your straw, which is pretty cool.
But the best part is when you're done drinking it you can go to any coconut selling place and ask for them to cut it for you and they will, even if you didn't buy it there (at least in my experience)
And they cut two sides so you can have a little spoon to take out all the côco.

viu? that's one of the little shpoons.

First trip out of Salvador: Morro de São Paulo

Mid September. 2009

I was not sure whether to write about this because I didn’t come here to travel around so much, my principal motive was studying and getting to know the local area, but okay so I did it and that is a part of my experience so I have decided to write about it. Obvsiously, get ready for lots of pictures:

So Morro means “hill” and Morro de Sao Paulo is a village type place on an island kind of near Salvador, that’s all I knew about it before getting there. To get there we needed to take a taxi to this Ferry boat (pronounced “FEH-He BOchee seriously) then from the ferry boat we took a van to another point on that island to take a speed boat to Morro de Sao Paulo!

This is the Ferry boat station.

on the ferry boat

The speed boat

Man I just couldn’t believe my eyes were seeing all this natural beauty, I swear it was like out of those travel pictures that I always thought were somehow enhanced but NO! if anything the opposite because this was more amazing in person.







When I saw the pousada where we had made reservations Pousada Natureza, I was almost feeling guilty for being there honestly.


We were paying 50 reais a night which is US $28 so I almost felt like I was ripping them off. But my other friends found another hostel near by like 10 minutes away for I think R$15 a night, like US$8/9 a night.
So then we were off to the beach after walking by this whole line of stores with all kinds of Morro de Sao Paulo lembrancas.
This is a mural along the stairway, a local artist posting her poetry and drawings. I actually met her one night and talked with her. They were very lovely poems.

I felt kind of uncomfortable though asking most people “oh are you from here” and, no even all the worker’s I asked weren’t from Morro, and the rest were tourists from all over the world but mainly from south Brazil—the more European part of Brazil. So I knew I wasn’t really experiencing “real Brazil” and felt like some really selfish/spoiled tourist taking advantage of my position because I know my maid back in Salvador is not coming to Morro.

But anyway I didn’t have a chance to take money out of the HSBC back in Salvador, thinking oh they must have ATM machines there. But..no. Well they did but didn’t function with my card and they had many that were only national ATMs, so I had to borrow money from my friend who thankfully took a lot because they do accept credit cards but you get a huge charge for using it like that.

Besides feeling weird about being at a beach resort type place, I really enjoyed the view and the beautiful warm beaches. The next day we went on a Pirate Boat tour that lasted from 10AM to 5PM. It went to several neighboring islands.


My favorite was the mud beach. When we went there were a whole bunch of Spanish tourists there enjoying the mud there. look at that. it was hilarious and fun.


It was amAzing!! There was some pinkish and some more yellowish mud depending on the part of the morro.

We also did some snorkeling in some natural coral pools.

This was my first time, and it was really cool I was swimming alongside different kind of fish, and one time I got really excitd that I cut myself a few times on my knee and on my pinky. It was extreme snorkeling.

We stopped at another island to eat, but the restaurants there were there were kind of expensive so we just all had some acai and nuts ☺.


The first day I had some good moqueca at some restaurant, and a crepe at this other place, and then some Italian food the last day. The thing is that those were the cheapest things there and even so they were like R$20 seriously like half of a night at the pousada for one meal. But later my friend who went afterward said he found out about some place were the locals go where you get a lot of really good food, like grilled chicken or other meat with lots of beans and rice and salad for only R$5! I couldn’t believe it. So if you go and want some good cheap food, I’d suggest you explore a little further in; he said he found out because there were some people were the speed boat dropped them off that showed them the way.

Anyway it was really fun. At night there were dances and live concerts, and capoeira jogos, but I chose to stick around this little pastel stand where there were these group of friends playing music for fun, next to joe and his caipifrutas. Caipifruta is like a caipirinha [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha ] but well with fresh fruits in it like I’ll try to upload the video.



This is the little like praca where many people hang out. There are also a lot of little stands selling jewelry and ceramics and stuff like that.
Joe's Caipifrutas!:



Doggies. so many dogs in Morro, and they look so well fed. Made me happy.
They also have a lot of home-made pasteries and desserts on the "street"
[my friend and me, sitting next to the musicians; me eating some brigadeiro mmm.. yeah I knew eventually I'd end up showing pictures of myself but it's too hard to crop it out/distort it and I don't really care anymore :) ]

Again with the award winning breakfast at the pousada:
So deriiicious.

But I especially tried to take advanatage of it because I didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t want to leave my friend without enough for herself, so that was a little annoying that I didn’t have money but apart from that, it’s all good. There was also this little grocery store in which I bought some snacks for the boat trip.

Overall this trip didn’t have to be as expensive as this because lets see I paid R$200 for transportation (roundtrip) and pousada, then R$30 for the boat tour/snorkeling, and may be $20 for each meal minus the breakfast which was included. So without counting any souvenirs or juices or coconut or acai on the beach, there were around $290 total for 2 days. BUT my friend did another option for transportation and instead of taking a van or taxi I think they took another speed boat and their transportation was R$30 roundtrip and their nights at the hostel were $R15 and if you ate those R$5 meals, and not done the boat trip then it would have been much, much cheaper. But oh well ☺.

So If you decide you want to go, I would suggest that you might as well take advantage and do the boat tour and snorkeling and see the mud beach. But I am warning you that it is uber-touristy and not necessarily a real town at least in that section may be if you go really deep into the island but yeah most of the people are European or rich Brazilians. But really nice people

Customs: Greetings

Sorry this may have been very important at the beginning but..

Usually people kind of lean in a bit and kiss both cheeks starting with the left one. That’s the one I always go for unless it’s the huge hug for people like Morby and Clara who I know better.
Guys do that but usually only with women. Otherwise they just do the handshake or a slap on the back if they’re really close friends. For example my host father does that with my host sister’s boyfriend a lot. If women don’t want to greet men with a kiss then they extend their hands out first to just shake hands.



[this is the only picture I found no idea what's going on it looks like Rio carnaval or something, but anyway they're finishing up the double kiss-start on the left!]


This website has a good short summary of important information but yeah do research on this sort of thing before arriving:
http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Brazil.html

Culture shock part II: in the house

I forgot to mention but the day I came home for the first time, the house cleaner was cleaning the bathroom. And when my mom introduced me to her, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to but I hugged her. And I think may be that might have been weird, or unexpected. But yeah I have never had a maid or servant or house cleaner, and I don’t know what to call her when referring to her. In Brazil I hear “doméstica” “moça/ moço" [pr:/mossa/mossu/] and I’m not sure which one is preferable.

All families in this program had some kind of helper. Most of my friends had females, a couple I knew had male cooks/house cleaners who did laundry too. I also have to add that all of the ones I’ve met are African descendents while the families tend to be “white”.
It’s not recognized as institutional discrimination that 90% of the poor population is African descendent. And I believe over 95% of domesticas are black females. And honestly this to me, really brings to life all the history that we’re learning about slavery in Brazil, and like I said usually our middle/upper class families are “White” (mine is what would be called “morena” I think and they have a different background than most of the families in the program; both my host mom and host father grew up in the interior on farms) anyway, then I see Fernanda (I changed her name for this post) barefoot in the kitchen (before this was considered a sign that someone was a slave, freed blacks wore shoes) and exposing herself to all these harsh chemicals in the bathroom and just working sooo hard all day more/longer than she had been told…I feel like it’s really unfair that this labor is reserved for only a certain demographic.

Anyway..so yeah my family had two moças at first but then only one that did cleaning and cooking, and then a male cook for special occasions like the Caruru.
I was totally not used to that or having other people do my laundry and dishes all the time, but Fernanda and Barbara, and Ed (pronounced /edgy/) were so nice to me and especially Fernanda that it wasn’t hard to interact with them. I mean they weren’t like afraid to talk to me or anything and I’m sure they kind of have an interest in not making me dislike them, but I see them as friends. I have become really close to Fernanda because she comes three times a week now and on one day that my mom goes to church to volunteer so she’s who is keeping me company (since the rest of my family leaves super early in the morning to school and work). While I’m having breakfast or lunch she’s preparing the next meal right there in the kitchen next to me so we have a lot of interesting conversations, we'll joke around a lot too.

I can really relate to her a lot—even more than my host family sometimes, not saying that our experiences are necessarily comparable, but we both have single mothers and have had similar experiences in certain circumstances. Her mom also moved to a different place in search of better opportunities. And then we talk about relationships and how her daughter is doing, well I don’t want to divulge too much information about her but she’s told me some pretty funny things. Oh I love Fernanda she makes my day she’s just such a genuine person and always seems to be in a good mood. I actually hug and kiss her good-bye all the time now. I don’t know if that is against social norm, but she seems to be fine with it and does it too. :D

I see that my host mom and family all have a personal relationship with her too, they know a lot about Fernanda's personal life and family. She's been with this family 3 years. My mom is always telling her about what's going on in her life, she's complain to her, share joy too. It would seem like she's a part of the family, but not really. I also see how they can be a little disrespectful to her time too, but I don't think I should mention some stuff, but generally my host mother tries to do things for her.

In this picture is Fernanda and one of my mom's sister's cooking for the Caruru, a lot of help was needed that day. But also to bring up the point that in my family, my mom and her sisters and my host sisters also do chores once in a while. My mom has done my laundry and she does cook a lot for me, and washes the dishes and kitchen counters etc. But I've never seen them wash the bathrooms or floors.

WAIT!! BEFORE YOU GO to Brazil:

1. Bring your student ID card!
I totally forgot mine and I didn't realize that you get a discount on almost EVERYTHING if you have a student ID, on museums, concerts, and so many other things I forgot what but when you only $25 instead of $50 it really adds up and you can save a lot.

2. Bring lots of sunscreen! It is amazingly expensive in Brazil, no idea why, but really the cheapest I found a little tiny bottle of sunscreen spf 30 was 40 reais= US$20 but they go up along with the spf, so the spf 60 was almost US$40 and for such a small bottle. Extremely excessive so I suggest if you stay for about 3.5 months like I did, bring 3 bottles of sunscreen just to be on the safe side.

3. Don't bring more than one pair of pants:
At least jeans are very uncomfortable especially during the day because it is so humid and hot that I can't even imagine wearing pants. I brought 3 pair and now I really think that it was added weight that I could do without, especially when certain airlines charge $100 when you go over the weight limit.

4. Extra tips about the clothes you bring:
Okay so two things: I wouldn't suggest coming thinking of buying most of the necessary clothes here because it is also surprisingly super expensive. I think even compared to clothes in the U.S. it's super priced unless it is really low quality fabric found on Avenida Sete, but my friends have had trouble with the seams becoming undone etc.
Except for bikinis or the sunga (speedo) if you want to try that out, because those are the only things that are way cheaper here.
So many of my friends do wish they had brought more of their "cute clothes" because it is just way to expensive here. But from my experience, most of my nice clothes has gotten ruined or lost and that happened to a couple of my friends too. We sometimes get our clothes back with bleach stains, or some mystrious blue ink blots, and my white clothes either color stained, or if they had parts of color they have been bleached out and, it made me really sad. And again we didn't know how to bring that up to our family. I just kind of showed my mom and asked if they could just not use bleach on my clothes please, it's okay if it's just washed with lighter/not too dirty clothes.
So I don't know, it's a risk to bring nice clothes so I was fine with my casual not-too-favorite items, but just consider that: the clothes in Brazil is expensive but your nice clothes might not come back the same.


Tribute to some of my clothes, may they be remembered the way they were:

(I'm just kidding I just don't like posts without pictures and couldn't think of anything else to put down, but this is really clothes that got...changed--and or lost)



no longer mint green. :( tear

no really isn't it great that these are the things that I'm complaining about, because it could be way worse.

Culture shock Part I

20/09/09
FOOOOOD culture shock: the food is still a little too salty and too sweet for me…:(

My host family eats cake and chocolate milk with chocolate cookies in the morning. :( And I know lots of people like that, but it's really hard for me, because I feel sick with so much sweet food.
But I am really glad that I was extremely specific in my housing questionnaire, I suggest that you do that unless you have no problem being blunt and risk hurting their feelings later on. But yeah it doesn't hurt to be super specific.
Talking to my peers about our experiences at our new homes, it seems to be a common issue. People mention things like not being used to the sweet juice or so much red meat, or so much rice, or meat in their beans all the time, or having food heated in the microwave. And they honestly weren’t sure how to tell their families about it. People just didn’t want to hurt their mom’s feelings or like with the microwave thing, my friend didn’t want it to more generally kind of insult his family's way of doing things and really change their lifestyle. As for me, I really don’t know how to tell my mom that the food is too salty for me. But it is a really big problem-- to the point that so many times that I was eating I was thinking it is NOT possible for me to keep eating this because I feel like my tongue is shriveling up and drying and that can't be good for me. It was that intense. But that's usually only with some meats, and I think it’s because it is really heavily salted for preservation purposes. I’m still not sure, but I still haven’t figured out the best way to tell them my mom about this.
But there were many friends who had no problem with that; they loved their food it was perfect and delicious, and yeah going over to their houses and eating lunch there [many students did this] to check out some different cooking, oh I loved doing that. Especially at my vegetarian friends' places, it was really delicious and not too salty or too sweet for me, and I really got to see how different the cooking style's are. They were really very different in every house that I visited.

But, again I’m really glad that I was very detailed. Like I put down that I don’t eat a lot of meat, I have to eat plenty of vegetables, and fiber—have to have those at every meal. Not too much starch or carbohydrates like bread and rice, I am also lactose-intolerant so I also can’t have too much cheese or cow milk, I drink soymilk but I am into experimenting with new food and I love, love fruits. When I was writing all this I was thinking: oh my gosh no family is going to want me, they’re going to think I’m super picky and anal and difficult. But no, it was really worth it; i'm glad i did it because they are important things for my health, and everything that I mentioned my family is really good about. Now it's just going to be about how to tell them about what I didn't mention. ...